Seven Devils
by KisekiMa
Summary: Before deciding to contact Dante, V has some pressing issues to resolve. On his way to the root of the 'Urizen problem' he must defeat seven mean devils… and learn the truth about himself.


**Seven Devils**

_I know the bottom, she says. I know it with my great tap root: _

_It is what you fear._

_I do not fear it: I have been there._

/Sylvia Plath/

**Chapter 1: To the Root**

_"Listen, you're not crazy enough to challenge that demon, right? You have an aura of a bookworm, I'm not expecting you to be an utter idiot like that. Unless you're a suicidal bookworm. Squeeeee…!"_

* * *

The giant snake-lady raised her upper body, trying to catch a persistent insect that dared to disturb her rest. To say that the demon was irritated just wouldn't be enough.

"You don't undersssstand, do you? When I sssssee sssssomething I like, I jussssst take it."

"And you happen to want this random kid?"

"You take me for a fool, ssssstupid chicken?" Emerald eyes of the reptile narrowed, her split tongue moved quickly in the air. "Thisssss isssss not a random kid! Hisssss blood issss very, very preciousssss. It will give me sssstrength."

"Ha, ha, ha!" Griffon laughed out loud, mostly to distract the enemy and get V some space to catch a breath. "I can't even imagine what amount of power would be enough to change you into a competent demon. You can't even catch a cripple, you see."

"Ssssssshut up, you pesssst!"

The snake's body moved rapidly forward, her open jaws suddenly multiplied and surrounded the blue demon-bird.

"Damn, just how many mouths this ugly bitch has?" Griffon would not escape so easily without Shadow's help. The panther changed shape to a twirling sword, but it did not seem to work on the greedy snake heads – phantom blades left no scratch on them.

"No, it's not like that," whispered V, breathing slowly from raising exhaustion. "There's only one."

"Huh?" The birdlike familiar tilted his head and focused, observing their enemy from above. "Oh, I see it now! The snake bitch is so greedy that she can't decide where to strike." He laughed nervously, shaking his head. "It's not even a space-time distortion, only a cheap trick with mind manipulation."

"Exactly. I bet her… _lust_ blinded her." V smiled, dangerously, like an attacking predator. "This body of mine may be weak, yes. But it's foolishness to assume that she has any chance of winning the battle of minds... Not against ME."

"Okay, kid, THIS I like and approve." If Griffon had better facial expression, he would smile mischievously. "Let's finish this one, she's getting on my nerves."

With those words he sent a wave of lightning towards the snake-demon lady, opening a path for a roaring ball of fury, which barely resembled an angry black panther.

* * *

**Some time ago**

The full moon, in all its ominous glory, was looking mockingly from above at the abandoned house. He – the other part, the pure demon – was long gone, but the remnants of his monstrous aura made the air strangely dark and heavy.

The young man, covered in strange black tattoos, stared blankly at the family portrait on the wall, at faces of the ones that ceased to exist long ago. It was too hard to withstand, to process even. Some things seemed just unbelievable.

So… he'd been born along with the new king of the Underworld, in this deserted place, full of painful memories. He even didn't know who he was.

_I am Nobody. I am…_

Struck by a wave of unexpected visions (were they even **his** own?), the man crawled to the small devastated room on the right. If the house hadn't been plundered completely, something precious was still hidden there. It should be under the bed…

His fingers found a familiar item, covered in dust and spider's webs, but probably not damaged.

"V," he read out loud the single number - or maybe a letter? - carved on the book's cover. A small smile formed on his lips, nostalgic and much more bitter than expected.

"V," he repeated. "A name as good as any other."

After all, it represented everything he was – nothing more than an abandoned initial, a remnant, a trash. Left behind by someone who intended to achieve things far greater than anyone could imagine.

V, as the man decided to call himself from now on, dismissively shook his head. It was not a good moment for such thoughts. He needed… basically everything. Clothes. Money. And a weapon.

Testing the abilities of his newly born body, V searched the room. He didn't find anything particularly useful, except a strange item, hidden at the bottom of the wardrobe.

"What is this thing anyway?" he whispered and focused on examining the strange silver cane. It was a demonic weapon, with weak but obvious aura of Sparda's kin. It resembled a sword enough to fight with it, and could help V moving faster than his weak legs actually let him.

Yes, it was pathetic - that pitiful state his other part despised so much to get rid of it. In his current situation, this human body was nearly useless. V realized that he could accept the weakness of it, but should never doubt the power of his own mind.

As in response to his thoughts, a small part of the tattoos on V's arm dissolved, causing him an unexpected amount of pain. He almost jumped back, when a shadow under his feet suddenly thickened. Soon it materialized into a big black cat… which looked surprisingly familiar.

"What are you?"

The sound of rustling feathers above his head was even more unexpected.

"Oh, dear… What a question coming from someone who has brought us into this world!" The big birdlike creature descended from under the ceiling. "I'm sure you can tell if you focus a little." Getting no satisfying response, the creature sighed overdramatically. "Let's get straight to the point then. We are your nightmares."

Well, of course, one's nightmares might be used as a source of power… No, that wasn't true. They were only like compulsive thoughts that could ruin your life. Causing a lot of pain, for sure. Or keeping their prey unfocused and their host motivated, that was all they could achieve. But, as dreams and fears, not able to kill anything.

V frowned, suddenly realizing something. So this was it, huh? That man abandoned not only his human side, but also all his traumas, memories, nightmares even. V could understand him, but he also knew it was a bad, stupid move.

He couldn't yet tell why he thought so, but he was sure he'd soon find the answer. As long as he could stand, think and learn, everything was possible.

"So… now, when we're already here, what are we going to do, V?"

The golden gaze of the demon bird pierced V through, encouraging the man to act. To stand straight and fight, like he always did.

At least this time he was not alone.

"_The busy bee has no time for sorrow_," V replied with a quote, making Griffon roll his eyes. "That's why I'm going to make myself busy beyond imagination."

"And beyond the capacity of your own body?" There was a strange tone in the demon's voice – concern, maybe? "Listen, you're not crazy enough to challenge that demon, right? You have an aura of a bookworm, I'm not expecting you to be an utter idiot like that. Unless you're a suicidal bookworm. Squeeeee…!"

The creature stopped this verbal attack, silenced by the end of V's cane. With its wings spread helplessly and neck pinned to the floor, Griffon really looked like a chicken a moment before being roasted.

"Easy," the man said so softly, playfully even, that it was more scary than any possible threat. "Getting to know what's going on seems rather like a wise idea, don't you think?"

"I thought that, being one and the same with that guy, you know what kind of shit is about to go down?"

"No. I know what he wants, but have no idea what he's going to do about it."

"That sucks."

"I guess so." V stood up and stretched out his new, despicably weak body. Well, it couldn't be helped. A good player does not complain, but makes the best use of the cards given to him. "Because you, too, will be a very busy bee. You're going to do something for me."

"That sucks even more." The demon bird caressed feathers on his wings, preparing to move out. "But a job is a job, and the sooner it's done, the more time for rest we get later."

V did not comment it, only showed Griffon the way to the door with a tip of his cane, but a strange smirk on his face was enough to tell that he didn't believe in possible rest.

Actually, every minute was precious to him. That's why he did not intend to waste time.

"Well, good luck then. When you're out hunting, I will catch up on some reading."

* * *

"What the…?" V's expression, when his 'familiars' came back, was priceless.

"You have no right to complain, kid!" Griffon's wings were loudly sweeping the air when he threw black leather pants at V, almost making the guy drop the book. "No right! Now at least you have some panties to put on your bony ass, so go find something better. If you can." The bird sighed heavily, glancing at the panther, which followed him silently through the corridor with a package in its mouth. "Not to mention those rags are damn heavy and that useless feline didn't help at all!"

Shadow spat the package to the floor and roared at Griffon, clearly having a different opinion on this matter. The bird squeaked back at his companion and evacuated up to one of the dusted candelabras, before the cat's claws reached him. Not knowing why, their little quarrel made V smile.

Not wasting time, V checked the delivery. He found a pair of sandals and a weird cloak, which looked like barely stitched together pieces of demon leather. He tried everything with an enigmatic look on his pale face.

"Well, you can go and parade around naked if you don't like it." Griffon nonchalantly caressed his feathers, pretending he didn't care about V's opinion."It would be actually amusing to see."

The man only smiled at those meaningless comments.

"Sandals… and a cane. A fitting choice for a pilgrim, don't you think?"

Shadow pierced V with a fiery look, waving its tail in response. Griffon chuckled dryly and flew down to sit on V's arm.

"And where the road will take this pilgrim, huh?" – he asked, truly curious.

But V did not answer, only smiled meaningfully, when they dissolved into the night like three forsaken shadows.

* * *

The streets were abnormally silent and a tense, heavy air wrapped around the city, like before a giant storm. Everything seemed to freeze, waiting for something… or rather hiding, like a rabbit in its burrow, hoping that predators will just pass by.

It was that creepy hour before dawn, when shadows are the longest. But the city had already awakened: streams of cars were drowsily moving in the distance and some citizens crawled out of their homes to reach schools and workplaces on time.

No one really cared about a strange man in leathers, who was slowly walking through the side alley, leaning on a cane. No one seemed to notice that the darkness was thicker, almost alive, around him and that the bird circling above the man was much larger than a typical crow.

And no one noticed that the ground itself was shaking ominously, like before a massive earthquake, which should not be even possible in this region...

Suddenly, Shadow growled meaningfully and almost flatly clang to the ground. It was a warning for V to dodge – fortunately, he did it on time – when something dangerously similar to a tree root emerged from the underground and almost pierced through the poor wanderer.

The entire place quickly turned into a bloody mess. People scattered like frightened birds, one or two persons fell into the slits. Few others ended up as snacks for always hungry roots.

"Qliphoth," said V, looking around calmly, like nothing could actually scare him. "I see. So his pursuit for power has not yet ended."

"What does it mean for us?" Griffon was circling around, looking for survivors, enemies or clues.

"That we still have a chance to stop him."

Soon sirens howled in the distance. It's funny how the police and other forces are always late, while the reporters arrive first to deliver juicy news. Not that anyone of them could do anything about this problem – they would not even be able to understand its true nature. V could already imagine how they'd be calling the Qliphoth 'a mysterious tree' or 'unexpected natural disaster'...

"_A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees,_" V said with a bored expression. He almost sighed internally, seeing how people started to gather, mindlessly staring at the predatory plant.

What did they want to witness here anyway? Was the view itself, or a funny picture, worth forsaking one's life?

Humans were, indeed, hopeless.

"Hey, V!" Griffon's voice cut off these meaningless thoughts. "Take a look at this. Someone is screwed up down there."

V came closer to a hole in the sidewalk and quickly noticed a child – probably a three year old boy - trapped underground, sitting in shock on the pile of rubble. His eyes, wet from tears, were wide open, focused on some overgrown demonic ants. The monsters were approaching on their chitinous legs, ready to tear the child to pieces.

"My, my… What an ugly bunch we have here." Griffon tilted his head, watching the creatures with obvious disgust. "First plants, now insects… is he going to bring out the entire ecosystem?"

"Let's go," replied V dryly and jumped down to reach the boy. Shadow formed something similar to a surfboard and transported his partner safely to the ground, while Griffon attacked the demonic ants with lightning. It was enough to keep them at bay for a short moment needed to grab the kid and retreat.

The boy did not even realize that he was already safe. He sat flatly on the asphalt and rubbed his eyes with clenched fists. V winced, suspecting what was coming.

"Hey!" Luckily, Griffon decided to intervene. "Don't you dare cry or I'll throw you back down there!"

The kid fell silent immediately, even a drop of fluid on the tip of his nose froze in fear. V started to wonder what he was going to do with this little problem, but a screaming woman, probably the child's mother, took this burden off his shoulders.

The child - suddenly able to move again, what a miracle! - ran and hid in his mother's arms. They both started to cry, ignoring the chaos around, because for them everything was already all right.

V was watching this scene for a suspiciously long while, then turned around and walked straight into the hole in the ground. It was clear that he'd already decided and nothing could change his mind.

"Hey, are you sure about this?" Griffon kept circling around his head, like an overgrown swallow. "I mean like 100% sure. Actually 1000 % sure would still not convince me to go…"

V did not answer, only persistently proceeded forward, slipping down on cables and pipes. Griffon had no choice but to give up and follow the guy.

"I see," he said eventually, when their shady gang got rid of the insects and descended to a large tunnel. Its aura left no place for doubts that this was one of the paths to the Underworld. "So we're going to…"

"Yes. To the root."

* * *

WARNING: this is a completely fake story, that takes place before the start of "Devil May Cry 5" main plot (merges with it later though) and contains way too much poetry. Why? Because I can't get enough of V, that's why.

WARNING: Author knows canon from "Before the Nightmare" but chooses to ignore it.


End file.
